I. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a sound reproducing device incorporating a device for selecting a desired record groove, and more particularly, to a sound reproducing device which includes a record disc having a plurality of recorded grooves on its face and a means for lowering the reproducing stylus of its pickup such that it is able to selectively reproduce any desired one of the recorded grooves desired.
II. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, sound reproducing devices, such as a simplified phonograph of the multitrack recording type are being widely used, because they are capable of reproducing several different items of the recorded sounds.
To say nothing of the type which permits a random selection of any recorded sounds, the device of the type which permits only an intentional selection of one of the specific items of the recorded sounds has a construction wherein a number of stoppers corresponding to the number of the record grooves are provided so as to be able to be operated from outside the casing of the casing of device for manual selection.
So far as the inventor's knowledge is concerned, Japanese patent publication No. 19763/76 is the one which discloses this kind of construction and this publication teaches that a fully mechanical construction can be used for the selecting mechanism.
According to the knowledge and experience of the inventor, this prior art invention is now being so widely used that there has arisen various demands for applying this device to general machines or apparatuses other than dolls or toys.
However, it was found that there exists some limiting conditions for applying this kind of selection device to such various kinds of apparatuses so long as it retains the same selecting mechanism.
In other words, this device has a plurality of stoppers disposed at pre-determined positions corresponding to each starting point of the record grooves and a projection protruding out from the marginal end face of the turn table at a fixed position with respect to the record disc. Pushing down of any one of the stoppers results in engagement of the stopper with the projection such that the turntable is stopped temporarily so as to locate the starting point of the selected record groove immediately below a reproducing stylus.
Due to this construction, the stoppers must project outside of the casing and, furthermore, the location of the stoppers cannot be changed due that must the relationship to be maintained between the starting points of sound reproduction and the projection as already mentioned.
The fact that the position of the stopper must be fixed and that a plurality of the stoppers of considerable length must project out of the casing not only makes it difficult to incorporate the stoppers in the device and to manipulate the stopper through the device, but also brings about another problem of neccessitating very complicated construction, high expense and possible trouble or malfunction when the stopper means is required to be remotely operated from another position.
The inventor of the present invention has aimed to expand the field of application of the prior invention.
In order to fulfill this intention, several electrical contacts have been incorporated in combination with novel mechanical constructions adapted to the electrical contacts.